behind the Giant-Shimano (and previously Argos) Giant-Alpecin, Giant-Sunweb, Sunweb there must be a similar marketing and PR brain to Sky but they did it slower, from the Argos years, now since 3-4 years with the #creatingmemories hashtag and the 2 vertical lines on the jersey (while Sky has 1....) the "young team", the 2015 Dumo-Vuelta experiment, the likeable team...it´s coming together. kudos to Spekenbrink and co. for working behind that. they planned for long time. just look at Dumo´s contract until 2021.they saw Sky´s big mistakes and Sky´s methods and marginal gains and learned from them. they have everything to please the public. Geschke, Ten Dam (tweeting to digger today ffs) the young guns from Holland and Australia etcthat is going to be huge. Kelderman stepped up big time and well, Dumo winning in Oropa is an aperitif of what is coming next year. and today we had the confirmation.the team that will try to defeat Sky (with their similar methods, because they saw Sky and slowly learned) is coming

I'm sure they're about as clean as Sky but they have the advantage of being a fresh face and not insulting the public with bogus PR. Yes, train races are boring but if there are two trains then at least there is some suspense.

DanielSong39 wrote:I'm sure they're about as clean as Sky but they have the advantage of being a fresh face and not insulting the public with bogus PR. Yes, train races are boring but if there are two trains then at least there is some suspense.

And Dumoulin at least got some results as a young guy and is pretty enough to go on a magazine cover and not hurt sales.

“She lost the old-fashioned way, by being a terrible candidate. Case closed.”

DanielSong39 wrote:I'm sure they're about as clean as Sky but they have the advantage of being a fresh face and not insulting the public with bogus PR. Yes, train races are boring but if there are two trains then at least there is some suspense.

Well, in fact they came to the scene telling everyone how different they were. And it made a sort of sense, going only for mass sprints, only to have some classic success a couple of years later.

But indeed, they never insulted someone's intelligence the way Sky does, they never brought boring racing or insane dominance. And Dumoulin developed in a very natural way. Step by step, getting stronger year by year.

For now, we can only hope they'll become as strong as Sky, with Kelderman, Oomen and Ten Dam in the mountains, and probably someone to replace Barguil.

pastronef wrote:behind the Giant-Shimano (and previously Argos) Giant-Alpecin, Giant-Sunweb, Sunweb there must be a similar marketing and PR brain to Sky but they did it slower, from the Argos years, now since 3-4 years with the #creatingmemories hashtag and the 2 vertical lines on the jersey (while Sky has 1....) the "young team", the 2015 Dumo-Vuelta experiment, the likeable team...it´s coming together. kudos to Spekenbrink and co. for working behind that. they planned for long time. just look at Dumo´s contract until 2021.they saw Sky´s big mistakes and Sky´s methods and marginal gains and learned from them. they have everything to please the public. Geschke, Ten Dam (tweeting to digger today ffs) the young guns from Holland and Australia etcthat is going to be huge. Kelderman stepped up big time and well, Dumo winning in Oropa is an aperitif of what is coming next year. and today we had the confirmation.the team that will try to defeat Sky (with their similar methods, because they saw Sky and slowly learned) is coming

Pennino wrote:For now, we can only hope they'll become as strong as Sky, with Kelderman, Oomen and Ten Dam in the mountains, and probably someone to replace Barguil.

oh cmon, ten dam? He wouldn't have a place on Sky's B team and he's on his way out. He's a competent road captain who disappeared long before the final climb on every stage of the giro. The only visible contribution from an outside observer's perspective was after shitgate and he still couldn't hang with his captain the way nieve, poels, kwia, geraint, ...

Pennino wrote:For now, we can only hope they'll become as strong as Sky, with Kelderman, Oomen and Ten Dam in the mountains, and probably someone to replace Barguil.

oh cmon, ten dam? He wouldn't have a place on Sky's B team and he's on his way out. He's a competent road captain who disappeared long before the final climb on every stage of the giro. The only visible contribution from an outside observer's perspective was after shitgate and he still couldn't hang with his captain the way nieve, poels, kwia, geraint, ...

Ten Dam could be still very decent if he can peak for the TDF the way he did before joining Sunweb. I mean really peaking, not entering a serious race and just preparing somewhere in the US. Curious if he could pull that off again.

It should be noted however that on the Angliru stage, they still had 3 man working for Kelderman at the first part of the climb. This is after Cobertoria and Cordal, and this was without Barguil and Oomen.

Dekker_Tifosi wrote:It should be noted however that on the Angliru stage, they still had 3 man working for Kelderman at the first part of the climb. This is after Cobertoria and Cordal, and this was without Barguil and Oomen.

Dekker_Tifosi wrote:It should be noted however that on the Angliru stage, they still had 3 man working for Kelderman at the first part of the climb. This is after Cobertoria and Cordal, and this was without Barguil and Oomen.